


Unstable

by anneapocalypse



Series: Flaws [3]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-23 20:17:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8341309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anneapocalypse/pseuds/anneapocalypse
Summary: Carolina decides it's time to part ways with Epsilon. Set sometime after Season 10.





	

“You’re pulling him?”

Carolina crosses her arms. Wash’s tone is unreadable, but the way he tilts his head to the side tells her he has  _something_  to say about that. She’s just not sure what.

“Yeah. I need to. I just think it’s time.”

“Something happen on your last mission?”

“No, not exactly.”

“Never thought I’d see the day  _you’d_  willingly give up an AI.”

Carolina tenses. Wash shakes his head. “Sorry. Look, I’m not telling you what to do. I’m just saying he may not handle that well. He’s… not good with rejection.” Wash pauses. “To say the least.”

Carolina sighs.

“Carolina, if you want to talk about—”

“I don’t—” She sighs again, turns her head away for a moment. Wash is the only one she  _can_  talk to, really. And it’s still hard. Things are better between them, but she still feels more or less like an intruder in his life. His life with these… friends of his. She’s not sure she’ll ever understand it, how he can be happy like this, boxed in with people so much less smart and capable than himself. No one on his level, really. But it’s the life he’s chosen, and that much, she can respect.

So she stays gone, as much as possible. Goes out with Epsilon to retrieve armor, equipment, various other remnants of collapsed military experiments. It’s a relationship of convenience, they both know that—Epsilon needed a place to go, she needed an AI.

At least, she thought she did.

“I thought it’d be okay. He’s  _not_  the Dir—not my dad. Just, sometimes he sounds so much like him, and it’s gotten to the point where I’m always listening for it. Even when it’s not there.”

Wash is quiet for a long moment, nodding.

“Maybe it is time you let him go, then.”

“Yeah.” Carolina pauses, looking out over the canyon. At the far end, she can vaguely hear Sarge barking at his team. Grif and Simmons are inaudible, at this distance, but she can tell from Grif’s posture alone that he’s refusing whatever task he’s been assigned. Typical Grif. 

“Thing is… he won’t have anyplace to go.” She shouldn’t be asking this. She’s already asked too much of them, too much of  _Wash._ Sometimes it feels like it’s always two-against-one, with the three of them—Wash, Epsilon, herself. Always somebody getting left behind—or doing the leaving. They’re an unstable triad, bound together by things all three of them need to leave behind. And she shouldn’t ask this of Wash. Not after his history with Epsilon.

She asks it anyway.

“Do you think you and your friends would let him come back here? Be a part of the team again?”

Wash is silent for another stretch, then gives a short little snort of laughter.

“What?”

“The teams’ll be uneven, you know. Sarge will demand blood.”

She smiles to herself, inside her helmet, before she can stop herself. “Guess that’ll give you all something to do.”

“Guess it will,” Wash says drily. His head tilts slightly, and his voice softens a little when he adds, “Send him back, if that’s what you think is best.”

“And the rest of your team, they’ll accept him?”

Wash snorts again. “Of course they will.” He shrugs. “S’what they do.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was written well before season 12, in which Carolina and Epsilon's relationship got a lot more development and my feelings about it changed significantly, but this sort of reflects where I felt they were circa the end of season 10 and I still like it for what it is.
> 
> I originally had this crammed into a Carolina shortfic collection, but decided to break it up, so, shrug, it's here now.


End file.
